Chapter One: Waking Up I finally got to the train station after dragging my wheeled suitcase for the past 20 minutes (and realizing I’ll be doing this a lot) and purchased a train ticket. I then got on the nicest train of the whole trip! Luckily, there was a hot redhead to eye up for the whole journey too. Nice! I do like redheads! After switching to the next train and then finally getting to my destination, I am made to wait for Amit. In fact, probably more than half of this tour is about “waiting for Amit.” Amit finally arrived. We went to Waterloo station to get some Swiss Francs for our Zurich/Rapperswil stay with Stefano/Jacrid, and then headed on to the workplace of Amit so he could get his new boots. Finally, a long walk to his flat! After sorting some shit out there, we set off to the HMV Forum. At this point, I probably have boarded about 18,000 trains. We arrived in Kentish Town in the early afternoon – I had hoped to get here earlier but Amit took his time as he always did, which I was soon to learn. We introduced ourselves to some random fans, and found out the kids at the front had been there since 6am!! Why so early!? Crazy!! We decided to go around the corner where we knew the tour bus would be. We met some Linkin Park/Dead By Sunrise fans there, including Bartek, Agata and Marta. Whilst at this point, we met a guy called Kurt, who ended up being LP’s and DBS’s guitar tech. After a bit of wondering and talking to people, we decide to get lunch. When we got back, we found out DBS had already arrived. We could see them come off the tour bus and into the venue through the back. As they passed through, we could see Amir and Ryan, so we called out to them. Amir come over, we spoke a bit about Jun Senoue (who wrote the lyrics for the Julien-K song THIS MACHINE) and what it was like working with him, then took a photo. Elias come over a little after and we talked about some dickhead spilling beer over his one of a king Ve’Cel coat. Kenny, LP/DBS’s security guard come out to talk to fans for a bit, where he revealed Linkin Park will return for a tour in September/October time. Eventually more fans and friends arrived, including Wil Vincent and Alex/GigaScythe After spending the rest of that day meeting more and more Linkin Park, Julien-K and Dead By Sunrise fans, Elias and Brandon come out to sign some stuff for fans. Elias then asked if I was ready to go. The day before, Elias and I were emailing each other about grabbing pizza, so this day we did it. Elias and I were joined by Amit, Wil, Alex, Alex’s dad and a few more friends – Negin and Sarah. We had a great time discussing family, bands, Psycho Plague, Nine Inch Nails, Julien-K, Linkin Park and the acoustic show for Dead By Sunrise. Elias was short on money, so I paid the rest of his bill and all of Amits bill – a debt he never repaid like he promised to... then we went to the venue. On the way, we bumped into Fu and a ticket street-seller that asked Elias if he wanted to buy a ticket for the show. “How much?” he replied jokingly, then we told him he’s part of the band haha. Everyone joined the queue so I walked with Elias back to the gate. He stopped me and said “Hey, can you do me a favour?” and handed me his camera. He wanted me to record a video of him walking through the fans and speaking to them. We finished this up and I headed back to the frontline. We were soon let in to the venue. The Delta Fiasco come on for the first show of the tour – I honestly thought their first song was the longest song I heard in my life, but it turned out to be 3 songs transitioned into each other, and extremely well at that! Everyone had a blast with them – but then tension of waiting grew for Dead By Sunrise to come on. People were chanting “DEE BEE ESS, DEE BEE ESS!”, and then variations such as “DEAD BY SUNRISE” and even some people shouted “CHESTER! CHESTER!” – this annoyed me constantly throughout the tour, as Dead By Sunrise is a band effort, not just Chester. Amit and I got a strong chant going, and the lights turned off. We could see a silhouette of Ryan Shuck clapping along to the rhythm of Amir’s lead guitar. The whole crowed exploded in a way I’ve only seen at Linkin Park shows, as the song “Fire” kicked in! Dead By Sunrise played their set perfectly. During Let Down, Ryan kneeled down and pointed at me. I reached out to shake his hand; instead he gave me his guitar pick. This was amazing! I have this blue-tac’d to my wall at home haha. The show ended on 20 Eyes, a cover of Misfits. Chester had this crazy little dance that he performed for most of the tour, it was funny to see. Elias and Chester both jumped to the barriers and signed stuff for fans, and gave hugs to some too. We all then proceeded to leave but we decided to pay someone a little visit – Pooch! The guy is a legend, a really cool guy. We decided to go back to the gates, where hundreds of fans were waiting to meet Chester. Eventually, a somewhat orderly line (much unlike the one in Berlin) was formed and one by one we met Chester, shook hands, got something signed and a picture with him. I told him how I am going to every show of the tour, and he replied “Every show? Dude, you’re a fucking madman. I love that!” This was the end of show one, and quite clearly, it was just the beginning.